O.K. you guys. So what do we do with "this generation shall by no means pass away". What generation? How long is a "generation". There is no way in hell that 120 years makes sense as a generation, no matter what year you start from.
Rod P.
Posts by Rod P
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26DC IN Kansas City -120 years stressed
by stillajwexelder inyet again because it was in the days text gen 6 vs 3 was discussed at the dc.
it -the talk -was started by stating that god puts a time limit on things and that in noahs day it was 120 years.
we are now 9w1 years into the time of the end since 1914. now 2034 was not directly mentioned but hell it was strongly implied and a gb member was present gerritt losch- so it looks as though statements like this have the wtbts approval.
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13
I Think I am Finally Free
by Ticker in.
again i want to thank all of you here for helping me with your many posts and for the multitude of information available out thier that expounds the real truth about the truth.
also want to thank ray franz for his two books which were very critical and key for me finally shedding the last few watchtower shackles which really brought their walls crumbling down for me.. ticker
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Rod P
So now you have discovered the freedom of feeling free to think freely, instead of fumbling to feel free from JW thinking.
Congrats, Ticker!
Rod P.
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16
I Think I'm Falling Away..
by Englishman ini'm starting lots of posts lately.
trouble is, i'm not finishing them.
i get a bee in my bonnet, start to type furiously, sometimes with 2 fingers instead of 1, then i just lose interest and cancel the whole shebang.. maybe it's just a phase i'm going through.
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Rod P
Englishman,
Why don't you start your threads in a word processing file like MS Word and save them. You can do them in bits and pieces, and not worry about whether they are completed or not. Later on you can revisit them, whatever interests you at the time. You can add, delete, alter, depending how you feel at the time.
Next hing you know, you've got a whole bunch of "polished" threads ready to go on a turn-key basis. Then, when you are ready, you can just keep them on stand-by, as you come on the JWD Forum. Now you can use your files to start a new thread, or as a subject reply on another thread somebody has going that interests you.
Then all you do is copy and paste your remarks on file into the thread. This should give you the feeling that all your past efforts are not a waste of time and effort. You hold them until they're edited, polished and ready to go, and at the same time, you are not going to have a bunch of regrets for saying something "on the fly". You have the best of both worlds, and all under your control.
See, you can still "keep the faith" without having to 'postacize from all us "Postates".
Rod P.
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3
Any bean counters here?
by TweetieBird ini want to take some accounting classes and was wondering where the best place to start is.
any advice?
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Rod P
TweetieBird,
You have not indicated what country you are residing in. This is relevant in order to advise you what possible pathways you can pursue.
If you want to apply these skills in a job or career, here are a few guidelines.
If you wish to work more at the Secretarial level for small businesses, then one or two basic courses in bookkeeping should suffice. Girl Friday type positions usually involve duties as Secretary-Receptionist, where you handle correspondence, filing, telephone answering, and simple bookkeeping like maintaining the owner's cheque book, writing cheques, making deposits, billing customers (invoices) on sales/revenue and paying bills (payables). This position, however, can also be a small business with an Office Manager (usually an accountant type), and you would work under him/her.
Also, some job opportunities do exist with larger organizations that would be able to use bookkeeping skills. These are ones where you would maintain and accounts payable system, or an accounts receivable system, which would be under the supervision of an Accountant or Comptroller.
On the other hand, if you wanted a more challenging career, you will need to have a more in-depth background and training. You will need to understand banking, payables, receivables, inventory systems, payroll, taxation, preparing journal entries and period/year-ending journal entries, closing a set of books, budgeting, cash flows, financial statements, cost accounting, management accounting, financial accounting, accounting systems and accounting & auditing principles and standards. In addition you will have to understand business english, business law, statistics, economics, taxation, and even take a course in public speaking. Also, there are a number of computerized accounting systems out there designed for small businesses, for which you will have to complete certain courses. Obviously, to go this route, you will be pursuing a professional career path which can be quite rewarding, but which for others, becomes quite frustrating and challenging.
Some programs can be done by home study, allowing you to work at your own pace while still being able to work for a living. This will also allow you to decide along the way if this is really what you want to do with your life. Others involve taking the first couple of years in a College, and then later transferring to a University to earn a degree. The sky is the limit, but you must determine what it is that you want to pursue.
Rod P.
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23
Ozzie's Weekend Poll #137
by ozziepost inso how's it been for you this week?
reading all the experiences this week has been a real cocktail of humor and tragedy, hasn't it?
not to forget all the "tech problems"!!
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Rod P
#1 It wastes "good witnessing time".
Shortly after being appointed to the position of "Magazine-Territory Servant" back in 1964, it was suggested by my predecessor that the territories needed to be better organized, as some were too small for a book study group to service, while others were far too large for individuals to handle, and so were not being properly serviced.
The congegation was located in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada, a city of about 600,000 people. There were about 60 territories within the congregational boundaries. The downtown city core were all businesses, with many buildings 30 and 40 stories tall. Many other blocks contained high rise apartment blocks, with a number of them being 25 and 30 stories tall. Still others were normal housing neighborhoods, including duplexes and four-plexes. Clearly the territories had to be organized based on population sizes and whether business or residential. Some territories would comprise two city blocks, where there was a concentration of apartment blocks. Others would be like 8 or 10 city blocks for normal residential housing.
The first thing in the reorganization of territories was to walk around each of the blocks and count the buildings, and make notes on the types of structures, which would help identify population bases and number of calls within a territory, etc. This served as the basis for establishing the various boundaries for each of the territory assignments.
For next thing stage, I went to City Hall for some maps of the area. I discovered they had large, full-scale maps showing each single block, and even each of the buildings for the business section, and scale-sized lots for the residential. I purchased two of these map sets for about $20, and went home to organize things.
Next, I mounted one of the maps on a 4' X 8' board, and then marked off each of the territories with a bold black highlighter pen. Then I went to the Kingdom Hall, and placed this display behind the counter where magazines and territorial assignments would be handed out to the "publishers". Each territory was marked with a number. This map display made it a lot easier to see at a glance what each territory looked like, and where each was located, so that selections could be made with clear visualization for everyone concerned.
Finally, I took the second map set and marked off the same territories, and then cut them out and mounted them on individual territory cards, and numbered them to match the main map display. These would be handed out to individuals and bookstudy conductors as they came for their territorial assignments. As assignments were given, these would be recorded as to who was responsible, as well as cancelling them upon return, much like a public library does when books are checked out and later returned.
This whole process took about two months to complete, in my spare time, when I was not working, attending meetings, preparing talks, doing field service and all that. One day the Circuit Servant (nowadays called the CO) visited the Congregation, doing his usual audit and review of all aspect of the congregational activities. When he looked at the Magazine Territorial end of things, he had one comment to make: "A lot less time could have been spent organizing the maps and the territories, and your time would have been better spent out in Jehovah's Field Service."
The lesson I learned that day was to never do your best at anything, unless it is for field service. And while I never said a word at the time, after that experience, I never did!
Anyway, that is why I chose your #1 "It wastes good witnessing time." If there were socializing after the meetings, I am sure the CO or DO would, upon visiting the Congregation, put a stop to it all. If you've got time to socialize, then you've obviously got too much time on your hands, which would be time better spent in Jehovah's Service!
Rod P.
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175
The facts on crucifixion, stauros, and the "torture stake"
by Leolaia infinally, i will look at biblical and patristic evidence bearing on the crucifixion of jesus in particular.
we need to examine the earliest known descriptions of the kind of crucifixion adopted by the romans and the specific terms they used to refer to it.
apparently the society believes that crux still meant "stake" in the second century a.d., when tacitus composed his annals.
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Rod P
Wow Leolaia! I'm impressed.
I did a certain amount of research on this subject a number of years ago, but nothing to the extent that you did. Your article should prove a valuable contribution to this forum.
I agree that it is not that important how Jesus was exactly crucified, but it is still of historical interest.
What is important, is the case the WBTS has made out of this issue, which they use as one of many indicators that they alone teach the "truth", while the rest of Christendom is wrong.
As you have now demonstrated, the opposite is true.
Thank you.
Rod P.
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59
What is it that makes posters leave?
by Es inwas just reading the topic "its time to say goodbye" and it makes me wonder what is it that makes people who have been here for a long time leave?
i couldnt imagine leaving this forum i love it and the people in it :) es
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Rod P
Well maybe, sometimes it's just a matter of saying what's on your mind, and then moving on. No big mystery, necessarily!
Rod P.
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59
What is it that makes posters leave?
by Es inwas just reading the topic "its time to say goodbye" and it makes me wonder what is it that makes people who have been here for a long time leave?
i couldnt imagine leaving this forum i love it and the people in it :) es
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Rod P
Well maybe, sometimes it's just a matter of saying what's on your mind, and then moving on. No big mystery, necessarily!
Rod P.
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56
dropped wife off at convention this morn...
by tetrapod.sapien ini just got back home from dropping my wife off at the convention this morning.
i took the day off of work so i could celebrate the occasion of freedom from mass-delusional-cult-think-programming.
out on the porch, sun shinning, birds chirping, scotch in one hand, demon haunted world in the other.. as i was driving my wife to the convention grounds, she thanked me for all the help i had provided her in getting ready for the convention, and for driving her.
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Rod P
tetrapod,
I couldn't help but feel the sense of joy and freedom you were going thru.
I do hope your wife is a little more open-minded than mine was. (Mine was born and raised JW, and had a lot invested in her immediate and extended family, which keeps her loyal to the JW's to this very day, imo.)
If your wife has at least experienced life and what it was like before becoming JW, then she may be in a better position to consider an alternative to what she has now, especially if she loves her husband and marriage a lot.
Good luck, man!
Rod P.
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Rod P
The answer is Yes to Religion, but no to things Spiritual.
I think Religion is the antithesis of Spirituality. But just because Religionists behave badly does not necessarily nullify or invalidate genuine Spirituality.
As a JW, I thought Religion and Spirituality were one and the same. Then I grew into a state of disbelief, and left. But I had converted directly into Mormonism from JW'ism. I was quite disgusted with the whole Disfellowshipment thing and what followed. That's when I saw there was a big difference between Religion and Spirituality in the case of the WBTS.
But then I thought I had found true Spirituality with the Mormons. As time went on, and I discovered a whole pile of hidden parts that the Church just did not want their members to be aware of, or have to deal with- the dark pages of church history, the false and sometimes weird doctrines, the lies, cover-ups and false prophecies, etc. And again I reached the point of knowing that this path was not one that leads to true Spirituality. (This is not to say that there are no Mormons who are truly spiritual, because I am pretty sure there are. It's just that it was not working for me.)
I have not joined another religion since then, which is over 30 years ago now. But that did not mean I was done with Religion and Spirituality. So I became a kind of "armchair philosopher", searching and researching Religions and Philosophic systems the world over, both in modern times and in history.
I studied the Kingdom of the Cults that are out there. Ever since the Protestant Reformation there has been a continual propagation of "new religions" and breakaway groups. I discovered there were over 225 breakaway groups fom Mormonism alone. I also noticed that Russell was a "breakaway" in his own rite, starting a new publishing empire, and his International Bible Students. And while Rutherford technically and factually succeeded Russell, I think Rutherford created his own brand of "breakaway" in the sense that the new doctrines and teachings, and the adoption of the name "Jehovah's Witnesses", etc. dramatically altered the nature of the religion Russell had started. And when the followers of Russell did not blindly move their allegiances over to Rutherford, they were branded by Russell as being the "Wicked and Evil Slave Class". Yet that group, in spite of the smaller numbers, are still quite active today, promoting the teachings and writings of Russell.
I moved around a bit for a while, and actually visited a number of different churches- Catholics, Baptists, Alliance, Pentecostal, Herbert W and Garner Ted Armstrong'ism, Televangelism (like Jim & Tammy Baker, Oral Roberts, Rex Humbart, Jimmy Swaggart, etc.), big fancy churches, and small, humble churches. I also visited groups like Ekankar (the Science of Soul Travel), EST, Scientology, and a few others. I explored a number of those New Age religions, like Theosophy, and a few that teach about the Ascended Masters. I studied Rosicrucianism, Masonry, and other Secret Societies. Then I explored Eastern Religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, Chinese philosophies, Egyptology, Greek Mythology, Hara Krishna, and a host of others. I observed what was going on with the likes of Mahareshi Mahesh Yoga, Jim Jones, and other fringe luny cults. I studied Witchcraft, Voodoo, Astrology, Tarot Cards, Palm Reading, Crystal Balls, UFO's, Urantia, Conspiracy Theories and the One World Government, Reincarnation, Meditation, Yoga, Herbal Medicine, Shamanism, and an endless list of other teachings and systems of thought.
At the end of the day, I think the human race is a fascinating bunch, but all have this propensity for starting new religions and philosophies around which they amass followers. At which point you always get another Social Group or Movement that begins to mess up peoples' lives by creating a lot of Rules, Creeds, Dogmas, Expectations, and Modes of Behavior. It is all about Power and Control, and little or nothing to do with true Spirituality. Those at the top of the Movement have all the Power and Control over the Masses, the Followers, the Believers. Yet they seem to need each other. You can't have one without the other. The Leaders must have ones to lead over. The followers cannot function unless they have someone telling them what to do, say, think, believe. They need this structure and track to run on, and they feel helpless without it.
And so, I have come to the conclusion that Religion is a Snare and a Racket, but that true Spirituality is an individual matter. We are all on our own individual path in this life, and what is right for me is not necessarily right for you, and vice-versa. To each their own. There is no right and wrong in this game, and no necessity to choose one thing over another. It's a case of "do your own thing", and no-one is going to be judged with reward or punishment because they choose to believe one way versus another (i.e. Heaven or Hell). Yet I do believe in Ethics, and that there is a difference between right and wrong when it comes to how we treat our fellow man, as well as other life forms. I do think there's a big difference between Adolf Hitler and Mother Theresa, and that there are/will be consequences for the kind of lives they each lived.
Rod P.